Honors Dance Lawrence Academy Spring 2020
Given the times we are in, and my relationship with these incredibly smart, gifted, generous and courageous young people, I knew that finding a way to continue to be real with each other, and present in the moment, would be essential elements to our continued success. Thus, our themes for the entire Spring of 2020 were “improvisation and courage”. What you are about to see will speak eloquently about these qualities in these wonderful young dancers. Below are their words about “improvisation and courage”.
Videos of Honors Dance classes in action
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Jackson: “Being willing enough to place yourself in vulnerable circumstances in order to experience growth will naturally create improvisation.”
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Tiffany: “Improvisation can express a person’s current situation and inner feelings. Improvisation is exploratory, whether it’s expressing our emotions, life’s dilemmas or desires….”
Lori: “I think that improvisation is important to touch upon different creative ideas that you might have, but it takes a lot of courage and confidence to achieve pure improvisation.... I don’t feel that I am ready to become that kind of person. I feel like I need to gain more experience and be in the right mindset to feel courageous and inventive enough to improvise.“
Tess: “improvisation makes me think about the quality of curiosity.... Courage means you’re brave and have the willingness to do something out of your comfort zone.”
Inaya: “ it takes courage to create something on the spot…. Improv conveys what one feels at that exact moment and that takes courage because you are being vulnerable.“
Marie: “improvisation is when you do something that is not planned before. It is scary in my opinion to not know the future and what is coming. Improv takes courage….“
Eve: “I think the two are directly related because it takes courage to improvise. Improvisation is not just an acting style or exercise, but most of how we live. Most of our interactions with one another are not scripted and therefore, we are improvising our way through life. Doing this takes courage….”
Lalu: “Courage is something that I like to think we all have; but most of the time we conceal, either intentionally or not. For some, improvisation is the outlet for that courage. With improv, at least for me, it allows me to be free and a little braver than usual.”
Yudi: “Even though it’s a term for art, it also applies to our lives. How we react to things and deal with things in life are mostly improvised…. A lot of times we might not know how to react, but to continue the ‘performance’ we have to choose something. And what makes us choose to do something and be confident about it is courage. Courage is something we tend to forget that we have when facing difficulties... Therefore, we are all improvisers. Courage will give us the strength to continue life even without knowing where it goes.”
Owen: “improvisation, this is an interesting word. Literally, it means to respond to some unexpected situation. Courage, your gut, the thing you need to figure out some problem…. I mean, every day, every species, they are doing improvisation, why? They have to respond to the things that happen every day, those weird things unexpected…. Yes, the motivation, the core of the improvisation is courage.”
We hope you enjoy “Improvisation and Courage”.
Brian Feigenbaum
Director of Dance
Lawrence Academy
Groton, Massachusetts
May 25, 2020